The text says death for saints is like an eclipse. What does this metaphor mean?

The metaphor of an eclipse, as used in Chapter 43, serves to explain the nature of a saint's passing. Just as a solar eclipse is not the sun's destruction but a temporary obscuration from our perspective, the 'death' of a saint is merely a 'defect of vision' for the observer. The text posits that Sai Samarth, being the Supreme Brahman, has no real birth or death. His physical departure is not an end but a transition that our limited senses perceive as death. For saints, the body is described as merely an adjunct, and their true self is eternal and unaffected. Therefore, as Chapter 43 clarifies, what we call death is just a perceptual illusion when it comes to enlightened beings who have transcended the physical form.